The Heartland Institute’s Seventh International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC-7) will take place in Chicago, Illinois from Monday, May 21 to Wednesday, May 23, 2012 at the Hilton Chicago Hotel, 720 South Michigan Avenue. The event will follow the NATO Summit taking place in Chicago on May 19–21.

The previous ICCC to take place in Chicago, ICCC-5 in 2010, attracted nearly 800 scientists, policy experts, elected officials, journalists, and other guests. We expect another large turn-out due to recent developments in the international debate over climate change, a line-up of outstanding speakers, and the global focus on Chicago due to the NATO Summit.

This conference is open to the public. Reporters, bloggers and documentary filmmakers may request credentials at the media sign-up form on the conference Web site. Federal, state, and local elected officials may attend for free by contacting John Nothdurft at 312/377-4000 or jnothdurft@heartland.org.

This year’s theme is “Real Science, Real Choices.” Our goal is to feature approximately 60 scientists and policy experts speaking at plenary sessions and on three tracks of concurrent panel sessions exploring what real climate science is telling us about the causes and consequences of climate change, and the real consequences of choices being made based on the current perceptions of the state of climate science.

New this year is sponsorship opportunities for meals and receptions during the conference. For more information, please visit the cosponsor page on the conference Web site.

Forty-nine former NASA scientists and astronauts have authored a letter calling on NASA to refrain from making unproven alarmist global warming claims in NASA press releases and on the NASA Web site. “We believe the claims by NASA and GISS, that man-made carbon dioxide is having a catastrophic impact on global climate change, are not substantiated, especially when considering thousands of years of empirical data,” the letter states.

Virtually all of the warming in the U.S. Historical Climatology Network (USHCN) since 1973 appears to be the result of adjustments NOAA has made to the data, mainly in the 1995–97 timeframe, reports climate scientist Roy Spencer. The adjustments are especially important because NOAA encourages the use the USHCN as the official U.S. climate record.

“I must admit that those adjustments constituting virtually all of the warming signal in the last 40 years is disconcerting,” writes Spencer. “When ‘global warming’ only shows up after the data are adjusted, one can understand why so many people are suspicious of the adjustments.”

EPA’s stated goal of reducing the frequency of heat waves is likely, if successful, to endanger human health, writes environmental scientist Chip Knappenberger. According to Knappenberger, research shows a certain level of exposure to heat waves makes the body more resilient to heat events and creates “an improvement in the overall public health and welfare.”

Scientists have discovered an artificial heat influence that is leading to misleadingly high temperature readings at Baltimore Washington International Airport (BWI). Scientists observed that when a brief westerly breeze occurred, the airport’s temperature readings would report a brief but pronounced temperature spike. Such spikes would cause BWI to report a higher daily temperature than other temperature stations in the region. The scientists have concluded the temperature spikes are due to a runway that sits due west of the thermometer, rather than global warming.

A paper published in the journal Nature concludes fossil fuel emissions are the primary cause of variations in ocean currents known as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. World Climate Report exposes the glaring flaws in the paper and chronicles how Nature has become increasingly propagandist regarding global warming issues.